Japan: is the big one coming?

3/15/2011 – We are all sitting around watching the chess tournaments in Monaco and Reyjkavik, but keeping a nervous eye on the enormous crisis unfolding in Japan. The 9.0 magnitude earthquake and the following tsunami have probably taken tens of thousands of lives, and now there is the danger of a nuclear meltdown. A chess friend in California is tracking the events.

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Tracking the events in Japan

Ken Thompson, computer and computer chess pioneer, was recently in Japan for
the announcement of his Japan Prize award. We reported
recently on this. Back at home in California, and in his office at Google,
Thompson is tracking the events that are now dominating the news. We are in
constant contact with him and receiving an alarming assessment of the situation.
In view of the global implications of the events we have decided to share some
of the information with our readers – although it does not have much to
do directly with the subject of our chess news service.

Ken Thompson (right) in discussion with economist and chess grandmaster
Ken Rogoff
and GM and author John Nunn, during last December's London Chess Classic

A massive 8.9/9.0 magnitude earthquake hit the Pacific Ocean near Northeastern
Japan at around 2:46 p.m. (JST) on March 11, causing damage with blackouts,
fire and tsunami.

The 9.0 magnitude quake (the fourth-largest recorded since 1900) caused a rift
15 miles below the sea floor that stretched 186 miles long and 93 miles wide.
It is driven by the Pacific tectonic plate diving under the North American Plate,
sinking Japan downward by about two feet. The huge jolt caused a 33-foot-high
tsunami to rush six miles inland over Sendai and the northeastern Japanese coast,
sweeping away almost everything in its path.

As you certainly know, the earthquake and tsunami destruction triggered to
a nuclear crisis in Japan's Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant reactors,
where workers struggle to cool three hot reactors and six pools containing spent
fuel rods. On Sunday Ken told us that Reactor 2 was going to blow, and cause
the most serious danger. It dutifully did
so on Tuesday morning. Here is video footage:

How this crisis plays out will be in the headline news on an hour-by-hour basis.
Germany, where we live, reacted
immediately. However, Ken tells us that these explosions and the possible
nuclear contamination that may follow should be the least of our worries. Here's
what he is tracking:

The above map from the US Geological Survey
web site, shows earthquakes world-wide on a realtime basis. The last days
have brought hundreds of substantial (magnitude 5+) aftershocks in the region
where the original 9.0 earthquake struck. However the shocks are progressing
south-westward and towards the capital Tokyo, one of the the world's most populous
metropolitan area (with 35 to 39 million people living in close proximity).
The subduction rift is clearly moving in the most dangerous direction. You can
follow it progress on the USGS
page here. And here is an
impressive time-lapse visualisation, which plots earthquake data from USGS
on Google Maps.

So that's what we need to worry about: the big one hitting the Tokyo area.
While we were preparing this report a 6+ has occured south-west of the capital
(see the blue square in the map above). The nuclear meltdown scenario is serious,
but the global ramifications of the quake that may hit Tokyo are truly horrendous.
The Great Canto Earthquake of September 1, 1923, a magnitude 7.9 event, occurred
in Tokyo Bay and destroyed the entire metropolis of Tokyo and Yokohama, killing
roughly 150,000 people. If Tokyo is seriously injured today, there is a potential
for many trillions of dollars in damages coming out of the global economy. So
this would have repercussions around the world.

See also

12/30/2017 – The "King Salman World Blitz & Rapid Championships 2017" in Riyadh from Decemer 26th to 30th. At the half way point of the Blitz Championship, the defending champ Sergey Karjakin leads with 9 / 11. Maxime Vachier-Lagrave is a half point back followed by Peter Svidler and a trio of Chinese: Wang, Ding and Yu on 8 / 11. In the Women's Pia Cramling has a full point lead with 9½ / 11. Watch live with Rounds 11 to 22 from 12:00 Noon CET (6:00 AM EST) on Saturday with commentary by E. Miroshnichenko & WGM K. Tsatsalashvili.

See also

12/6/2017 – Imagine this: you tell a computer system how the pieces move — nothing more. Then you tell it to learn to play the game. And a day later — yes, just 24 hours — it has figured it out to the level that beats the strongest programs in the world convincingly! DeepMind, the company that recently created the strongest Go program in the world, turned its attention to chess, and came up with this spectacular result.

Video

On this 60 mins video we are going to concentrate on a simple, very solid idea in the main line Scandinavian, which even Magnus Carlsen has used to win games. Black focusses on making his life easy in the opening and forces White to work very hard to get advantage – but it is doubtful if White can get an advantage. Club players are always on the lookout for effective, time-saving solutions and here we have just that. Accompany FIDE Senior Trainer and IM Andrew Martin on this 60 mins video. You can learn a new opening system in 60 mins and start to play it with confidence on the very same day!